Equal and Oppposite
by Writer's Arcanum
Summary: You know that one kid in your average family who's always spacing out or sleeping? That's me. You know that one kid in your average family who's way too hyper for her own good? That's her. We're polar opposites. Yet somehow, against all odds, this girl fell in love with me. Unfortunately, I have no choice but to deal with it. (Non-deadly SAO, spoilers in first A/N, adult language)
1. The Lazy Badass

Equal and Opposite

Chapter One: The Lazy Badass

* * *

**Ever wonder what things would be like for everyone if SAO wasn't a death game? If it didn't trap ten-thousand people inside it? This is a story that I came up with on a whim, and it indulges that thought, with a few extra changes as well.**

**So, here's a small list of the changes that I deem are necessary for you to know in order to understand and further enjoy this story. There are more, obviously, but these are the changes that you would benefit from knowing right away.**

**First and foremost, there is the obvious fact that Sword Art Online is not a death game. Though it originally only had ten-thousand slots for players, in this world, it eventually became open to anyone who wanted to join in the fun. Seven months prior to the first narrated time in this story, the game became completely open, and anyone who wanted to play merely had to buy the game and the required hardware.**

**Second, Yuuki Konno and her backstory have been drastically changed from canon. She does not have AIDS, for a start. Because of this, when she decided to play SAO (because there is no ALO in this story), she did not use the Medicuboid. (Okay, for those of you who are curious, I lost touch with SAO II's anime before the Mother's Rosario arc even started, so I'm only going off of info from the wiki and also don't know how much the anime has revealed at this point in time.) As the Medicuboid had much to do with Yuuki's incredibly fast reaction time, the fact that she uses a regular Nerve Gear in this story makes her reaction time a bit slower than it is in canon.**

**Third, the Original Sword Skill system that existed in ALO was implemented into this story's SAO as a commemoration of SAO becoming open to the public. There are a few notable differences, a lot of which will be pointed out by characters in this story.**

**One last thing: if you don't like Kirito to be OP, and you don't like the idea of him having a very strong mouth, then this isn't a story you'll like. Just thought I should get that out there.**

**I believe that accounts for everything that you need to know. I guess that if you like this story, I'll see you at the bottom note.**

* * *

You know that one kid in your average family that's always spacing out or sleeping? The one that just sits in the house or backyard all day and does nothing but laze around? The one that no one can hold a conversation with due to his inability to pay attention to someone for longer than ten seconds? That's me.

You know that one kid in your average family that's way to hyper for her own good? The one that's always doing something, whether productive or not, to occupy every second of her day? The one who's good at every sport she tries due to her massive amount of energy that never seems to run out? That's her.

We're polar opposites. For every quality that one of us has, the other has something equal and opposite to completely contradict it. You'd think we would hate each other with a passion due to the massive amount of qualities we hate about each other.

And yet somehow, against all odds, this girl who is basically ADHD in a meth pipe…

Fell in love with me.

And, unfortunately, I have no choice but to deal with it.

I can still remember the week that set this whole mess into motion. No matter how much I want to forget it, my "week of damnation" remains ever-vivid in my photographic memory.

* * *

"Hey, Klein."

"What's up, Kirito?"

"You ever wonder what it would be like if you weren't one of the top-ranked players in SAO?"

At this, my red-haired online friend named Klein looked over at me curiously. "No, why?"

"Well, it's just…" the thought had been gnawing at my brain for a good few hours as we lay there on our beach towels. We were on the forty-fourth floor of «Aincrad», hidden in a beach that, due to a system bug, would keep us from being located by an rabid fans or random challengers. Even for people on our friends lists, our location data would say, 'Unknown', even though we were logged in and chilling on a sunny beach on the west edge of one of the more recent floors.

"It's just what?" he asked me, trying to coax the information out of my space-case brain. He knew that my attention span barely exceeded that of a fruit fly, and thus, that he would occasionally have to remind me of various things.

"I guess… I wish I could go back to the time before that gigantic tournament, when I was still a nobody," I revealed, sighing as I remembered the simpler times in my time logged into «Sword Art Online». "I mean, back then, I could sleep under a random tree and not have to worry about waking up to a duel invitation."

"I know what you mean," my best online friend looked up at the sky with a nostalgic expression. "Before the tournament, I got a hell of a lot more time to grind with my buds. Now, the second I leave a dungeon, I have to teleport to another floor to avoid the people gathering to challenge me."

"Exactly," I nodded my head in agreement. "And I've got it worse than any of the other guys. Winning the whole thing only made people eager to challenge me. I wish there were some way to be known as even more powerful than people already think I am. You know, to the point that no one would even think of challenging me to a duel."

Klein gave me a look that said he had an idea. "You could reverse that. What if you unceremoniously lost in the first round of the next tournament? There're only a few days left, but I know you'll register if you haven't already. No matter how lazy you can be, you're a combat addict."

"And that's exactly why I can't throw a single match," I gave him a tired look. "I registered already, yeah. But, to get the most out of my spot, I need to give it my all in each battle. It's my code, man."

"Fair enough," Klein gave me a sympathetic look. A second or two later, his face lit up, as if he remembered something really important. "By the way, have you heard of that relatively new player who's got an undefeated streak that rivals yours?"

"No, why?" this really interested me.

"Everyone calls her the «Absolute Sword». They say she's been undefeated since she started playing a few months back. Apparently, she's got ninety-eight wins in a row right now."

"She's probably trying to beat my record of one-o-seven," I speculated, sighing a great sigh as I dreaded the possibility of people comparing me to this girl. "Well, whatever. I never planned to hold the record forever. Maybe people will be less interested in challenging me if she beats it."

"Well… that's just it…"

I didn't like the tone of his voice. When I looked over to him, I found his expression to be worse than his tone. "What?"

"I don't know how to say this, but…" he seemed to be struggling to find words that would keep me calm. "Word is that she plans to tie your record, and then… duel you."

I said but one word. One word that summed up how I felt about the whole damn situation.

"Fuck."

* * *

For the first time in a year and a half, I found myself dreading logging into SAO. I almost didn't log in at all, but I knew I would have to log in at some point. After all, the tournament was the next day. Why was I so opposed to logging in?

That girl had finally tied my record.

Unfortunately, that meant she would probably be there to confront me in the exact place where I logged out last time, and would be forced to log into the next. Thus, I would probably be forced to duel her.

Unfortunately, I had to log in to make some last-minute preparations before the second "Ultimate Swordsman Tournament" that was going to start the next day.

Why was I so opposed to dueling her? The thought of a combat addict such as myself not wanting to duel a strong opponent seemed outrageous to most players who knew about it. However, there was one, unbelievably simple answer that only I knew about.

I didn't want to use my trump card before the tournament even began. It was meant to be a surprise that I would save until late in the tournament, and I didn't want people to see my new fighting style so early on.

As I debated on whether I really needed to go in that day, I suddenly heard the sound of shattering glass coming from right behind me. When I slowly, ever so slowly, turned around, I saw countless shards of shattered glass all over my bedroom floor, along with a baseball next to the wall opposite the window that had undoubtedly just been broken.

_That's it!_ I shouted in my head, abruptly standing up from my computer chair and walking over to where the baseball sat on my bedroom floor.

I picked it up, then proceeded to walk over to my broken window. In the backyard next to mine, I saw exactly what I expected to see: my over-the-edge-hyper neighbor, Konno Yuuki. She had an aluminum baseball bat in her hands, proving that she had without a doubt been the culprit.

Her apologetic smile did nothing to ease my rage. If anything, it only pissed me off even more. As her older sister walked up from behind her, I began shouting at the top of my lungs.

"What the fucking hell?!" I nearly screamed, glaring at them with the force of a thousand suns. "There's broken glass all over my goddamn room! What the fuck is wrong with you two?! Why the hell would you do this in your goddamn backyard?!"

"Sorry!" the younger sibling replied earnestly, her waist-length black hair bouncing a bit as she quickly bowed.

I almost started to forgive her, but completely halted that train of thought when her sister spoke up.

"At least it'll give you something to do, you damn lazy ass!"

I just stood there for a moment, feeling incredibly tempted to throw the baseball in my left hand right at her head.

"Not helping, Aiko!" Yuuki said as she punched her older sister's shoulder. "Sorry about my sis, but can we please have our baseball back? We only have that one left."

With an eerily calm and even tone, I said, "Oh? You want your baseball back?"

Yuuki, completely unaware of what was to come, merely nodded.

"Okay, then," I said, switching the ball into my right hand before making the motions to throw it. Both Aiko and her sister seemed to get what I was about to do, and both of them froze in place.

"Here you go!"

Before either of them could react, I threw the ball with stunning speed and precision, nearly beginning to cackle maniacally as it completely shattered the rather small window of their wooden shed, which had become known throughout the neighborhood as their father's precious 'man cave'. They both looked over, and when I saw the horror in their eyes, I finally lost it.

I started laughing in a similar manner to your average maniacal anime villain, walking away from the window with a satisfied smile on my face. I said one, final thing before exiting my room to get a snack.

"An eye for an eye, a window for a window!"

* * *

It took about thirty minutes for me to find and throw away each and every shard of glass that the window lost. With each piece, I found myself wanting more and more to log into SAO and grind against mob after mob on the current top floor, being floor fifty-one.

By the time I was finished, I had completely forgotten about the looming threat of that annoying challenger who wanted to beat my undefeated streak by beating me herself. And so, the moment I had my room looking adequately clean, I slid my Nerve Gear over my head and said two simple words.

"Link start!"

* * *

The moment I officially spawned back in the game, I noticed a girl standing in front of me with a determined look. Her clothing mostly consisted of violet-colored items with red or black trim, with the only exception being a black light metal chest plate.

At her side was a thin, black sword of a similar design to my «Elucidator», which I had recently obtained as the LA bonus from the fiftieth floor boss raid. I could easily tell that it was not a rapier, though the flat looked barely wide enough for it to classify as a one-handed straight sword.

Looking back up to her face, I noticed several features that looked unnervingly similar to that of the girl whose baseball had crashed through my window not an hour before. Even the hair was in the same style and length, though this person's hair color matched the violet of her clothing.

_She must have been waiting for me to spawn._

"Hello?" I queried, a slight edge in my voice as I spoke. "Can I help you with something?"

I already knew exactly who this was. It had to be this «Absolute Sword» that Klein had been talking about only a day before. Oddly enough, I didn't even think about avoiding her at this point. Why?

She looked almost exactly like the girl that I wanted to beat to a pulp.

"Well, you can start by accepting my duel invitation," she said rather arrogantly, opening her menu and manipulating it until I saw an in-game window pop up in front of me. "And you can finish when you lose."

I smirked deviously, setting the mode to «Death Match» before hitting accept. "Normally, I would decline, but…"

As the timer began to count down, she asked me a question while drawing her black sword. "But what?"

As I drew my «Elucidator» from its sheath on my back, I answered her with an almost demonic look. "I need to blow off some steam, and you look like the perfect target, «Absolute Sword»."

Her eyes widened for the faintest of moments before narrowing into a squint. "We'll see if you can keep that smug attitude when I beat you."

"Talk about arrogant," I replied, looking up at the timer. "Well, one of my favorite things to do in-game is wipe out people's overconfidence in their abilities."

A mere second later, the buzzer sounded, telling all of the gathering spectators that the duel between the game's strongest and his powerful challenger had finally begun.

Before she had time to react, I charged at her, activating a low-level dash-type «Sword Skill» to reach her faster. However, the moment my blue-shining blade came within her range, she hit my skill with one of her own, knocking me into the air.

She immediately followed up with a «Sonic Leap» aimed straight at my chest. Unfortunately for her, she had knocked me up into the perfect position to activate a midair «Original Sword Skill» that I had created not three days prior.

Just as she reached me in the air, I activated «Vertical 360», sending me into a vertical slashing somersault that overpowered her «Sonic Leap» and knocked her back into the ground.

I fell to the cobblestone streets of the «Starting City» gracefully, standing up straight just in time to block a horizontal strike from my opponent's dark blade. While her sword recoiled into the air from my skyward strike, I transitioned into a full spin attack that tore straight through her chest plate and forced her back about a meter.

"First blood," I said darkly as I watched the red damage lines on her chest plate slowly fade. "That all you got?"

"Not even close," she replied, charging at me once more.

I met her sword with my own in a deadlock, pushing her back with my massive STR stat, all the while slowly putting my blade and body into the initial position to activate another OSS.

The demonic boss drop sword in my hands began to glow with a lavender outline, shocking my opponent stiff as the first part of my OSS, «Soaring Backstab», activated.

My glowing sword pushed her own down with incredible force as I jumped into the air, using the power of my first hit to sail directly over her head. I twisted in midair, stabbing straight through the small of her back with my blade.

As I fell headfirst towards the ground, I thrust out my left hand to catch myself, my sword remaining in my foe's back all the while. I spun around with my left hand, my sword in turn tearing through her spine. The moment she began turning around, I pushed myself into the air with my left hand until I landed gracefully several meters away, the lavender glow finally fading from my blade.

As my post-motion delay kicked in, I decided to egg her on. "So, are we done playing children's games?"

"Well, I suppose you've earned that much," she relented, making my eyes widen slightly at her next words. "Sure, I'll go all out on you."

Not a second too soon, my post-motion delay finished, allowing me to block a powerful overhead strike from her thin sword. Unfortunately, that wasn't even close to the end of her onslaught.

I found myself blocking what seemed like an endless array of swift attacks from her blade, giving me little room to retaliate. Eventually, I grew tired of playing the defensive role, forcing myself to jump back and wait for her to charge again.

However, I had no way of foreseeing her next attack. She unleashed an OSS while I gained altitude, and all five hits made contact with their marks on my body.

After that skill ended and I landed several meters away, I immediately looked to my health bar, finding that it had just barely dipped into the yellow.

_A single OSS did that much damage?_ I mused, resting my blade at my side while I caught my breath. _And even crazier, this girl has the speed to make a skill with five hits? She's better than I gave her credit for._

"You know what?" I said, giving her an acknowledging look. "I'm impressed. A five-hit OSS? You're much tougher than I gave you credit for."

She opened her mouth to say something, but before she could speak, I cut her off. "However, I'm far from finished. Five hits is better than most can do… but it's still child's play for me."

"What about eleven?"

_Oh, shit._

The moment she finished talking, she charged at me, putting her blade in the position to activate what I could only assume to be her eleven-hit OSS. As she neared me, I took a deep breath, steadying my nerves in order to loosen my body.

A violet glow radiated from her blade as she closed in. I remained calm and loose, ready to dodge or block each strike. When she got within range to strike or be stricken, my vision tunneled until all I could see were the movements of our blades as her skill began.

The first two thrusts made contact with my right shoulder, though I just barely managed to block the next three as they followed the same pattern: a diagonal line of thrusts.

_So fast!_

She drew her sword back, then brought it forward in a thrust to my left shoulder. It made contact like the first two hits, but by this point, I had figured out that the next couple of hits would most likely mirror the original five. Luckily, I was correct, and I managed to barely block each of the rest.

Then, right after the tenth total thrust, she drew her blade back once more. The next split second seemed to happen in slow motion.

She began to thrust her blade right at my stomach, moving her whole body to boost the power of the final hit. Unfortunately for her, this also made it much easier to predict where the final hit would land.

"Haaa!" with a mighty shout, she let loose one last stab at my abdomen. It was all I could do to redirect it with my sword until it merely grazed my right side.

Even so, when I took a look at my HP bar after jumping back, I found that I was clinging to my virtual life by a mere thirty-two out of around fifteen-thousand points.

Despite my opponent still having just over half health, I knew that if I played my cards right, I could still win.

_After all, I could use my own best OSS… but is it worth it to show a good card in my hand so early on?_

This incredibly fast girl mistook my silence for a feeling of helplessness. "So, are you gonna give up?"

_Okay, it's totally fucking worth it._

"Not a chance in hell!" I replied, putting my body and blade in _almost_ exactly the same position to activate the dashing skill I started the battle with.

I could tell by the smug look in her eyes that she thought I was using the same skill. Her overconfident look only intensified as my blade started to shine in the exact same bright blue color as the duel-starting skill. But that was the whole point.

This was my best OSS for the one-handed sword build, which took the better half of a month for me to successfully create. It was meant to be a starter-finisher, one that would be able to defeat any player before they knew what hit them. Its damage played heavily off of my STR and AGI stats, making it hit incredibly hard and insanely fast.

And so, my ten-hit «Original Sword Skill» known as «Lightning Nightmare» began.

The second I unleashed it, I instantly closed the distance between us, slashing from her right shoulder to her left side in an incredibly fast motion that left my opponent stunned.

I followed up with a vicious spin attack that went from her right side to her left shoulder, the damage line creating an X with the one that came before it. A stab where the lines intersected followed, but she just barely blocked it with her sword.

I dropped to my knees, slashing through her legs from right to left at a slight slant and then reversing into a mirroring slanted strike.

The skill sent me jumping back just in time to avoid an ill-timed slash from her sword. I closed the distance again in an instant, an overhead strike immediately cutting through her head and into her stomach before I retracted my blade once more.

A powerful slash overrode her attempt at blocking at her left side, with my blade pushing her own back as it cut horizontally through the area just below her chest.

Two much faster diagonal hits that dealt two thirds of the average damage per hit followed in quick succession, creating a red X across her whole upper body. Then, the final hit initiated, making me draw my sword back in what looked like the preparation for a thrust.

She moved her sword into a horizontal position to block it, as I expected. But, unfortunately for her, the final hit didn't quite go as _she_ expected.

Just before the tip of my blade passed the level of my leaning-in chest, its trajectory altered, jerking itself downward so as to bypass her own sword. Her eyes widened as my shining blue blade passed her own black one in an uppercut-like slash.

In a mere moment, my sword made contact with her lower abdomen, then jerked up and through her whole body before it exited through the right side of her neck.

The second my skill finished, the winner message appeared in the air above us. I looked up and saw that I had indeed won. Sadly, my virtual lungs wanted to kill me right about then.

"God… damn… it…" I panted, almost falling backwards before I used my sword to prop myself up.

I looked over to where my opponent stood while her HP reset to full, seeing a blank expression on her face. Soon after she realized that I was staring at her, she walked over to me, sporting an unreadable expression.

"How did you create such a quick and powerful skill?" she asked me, her expression still hard to read.

_I can't exactly tell her that I was actually using a different build when I made that skill,_ I thought, my brows furrowing in contemplation. _She probably wouldn't understand, since nobody even knows about my real build…_

At long last, I came up with a plausible answer. "W-well, if you use equipment that increases your attack speed while making an OSS, it makes it a lot easier to meet the speed requirements… and on top of that, depending on what stats you set the skill to play off of, you might not have to move as fast anyway."

"Wait, what do you mean about the stats?" now she sported a look of genuine curiosity.

At this point, I was just glad the topic was no longer on how I made that specific skill. Thus, I was happy to explain anything that didn't involve the former topic. "About a month ago, the OSS record system got a new feature where you could select the stats you want your OSS to use for damage calculation. The default is to set it where it scales off of a little of all of your stats, but if you modify what you want it to scale off of, it can affect how difficult it is to create the skill you want."

"How do the stats it scales off of affect anything?"

I sighed, preparing to go into a rather lengthy explanation. Fortunately, I was saved the breath when I received a PM notification.

"Sorry, give me a sec," I said, laughing sheepishly as I opened the message window.

"_Hey, this is Sugu. Mom just got home and checked your room, and she's super pissed about the window. She made me log in to tell you to log out and explain. So yeah, you might want to get on that."_

"Oh, shit," I muttered under my breath.

The girl before me seemed to hear this. "What's wrong?"

"That was a family member of mine telling me to log out," I explained, giving an apologetic smile. "My room got a bit messed up earlier today, and I guess my mom wants answers."

"Oh, all right," she replied, putting her right hand up as a sign of farewell. "Maybe we could meet up tomorrow and you can tell me more about the OSS system."

I didn't know exactly why, but I found myself being much more agreeable than I usually would. "Sure, I'll explain a bit before the tournament starts. Though, I do have one question before I go."

"Ask away."

"Well, I know about your title," I told her as I waved the PM window closed. "But I don't actually know your player name."

"Oh, right," the «Absolute Sword» gave a sheepish look. "My name is Yuuki."

Suddenly, logging out and facing an angry mother seemed like the least of my worries. There was no goddamn way that it could be a coincidence at this point. The similarities from body to avatar were far too much to be a randomly-generated avatar, and the avatar was too detailed to be one just haphazardly thrown together. On top of that, the voice of this girl I met online was exactly the same as…

I managed to keep my cool as I logged off, though I desperately wanted to get out of the game as fast as possible. When I finally returned to reality, before I even pulled my Nerve Gear off, I uttered one sentence. One single sentence that completely summed up my thoughts about my entire life in general at that moment.

"I'm so fucked."

* * *

**And we're back. I'll be brutally honest with you; this story started out as just a way to stretch out the action-writing muscles that I've left rather unused for quite a while. It kind of evolved after that, but I never once expected to top four-thousand words in the first chapter alone.**

**Well, I hope you enjoyed your read. If you did, I'd love to see a review from you. If you didn't, I'd still like to see one that tells me what I need to work on.**

**Unlike the top note, I really don't have much to say down here. I guess I'll just bid you farewell.**

**Wish me luck on the next chapter!**


	2. First Round Opening Bells

Equal and Opposite

Chapter Two: First Round, Opening Bells

* * *

**Okay, so I finally got around to continuing this after several months. It'll probably be a bit more regularly updated from now on. Honestly, most of what's here was done in the past two, maybe three days. I only had 1500 words of this written until about Thursday or Friday, and then I picked it back up and ran with it.**

**Most of this chapter is setup for the fight, though there is a fight later on, right towards the end. I took into consideration the comments about how I need to describe the scenery a bit more while writing this, among other things. All in all, I'd say that this chapter is about one and a half times as good as chapter one. Kirito will cuss a bit less, but he also has less going on to agitate him in this chapter, so…**

**Anyway, I'll let you read for now. Gotta see how much everybody else thinks I've improved.**

* * *

"_My name is Yuuki."_

_Suddenly, logging out and facing an angry mother seemed like the least of my worries. There was no goddamn way that it could be a coincidence at this point. The similarities from body to avatar were far too much to be a randomly-generated avatar, and the avatar was too detailed to be one just haphazardly thrown together. On top of that, the voice of this girl I met online was exactly the same as…_

_I managed to keep my cool as I logged off, though I desperately wanted to get out of the game as fast as possible. When I finally returned to reality, before I even pulled my Nerve Gear off, I uttered one sentence. One single sentence that completely summed up my thoughts about my entire life in general at that moment._

"_I'm so fucked."_

* * *

The very first thing I noticed after slipping the Nerve Gear off my head was the draft coming from my newly-broken window. I found myself shivering profusely, even though it wasn't that cold. The real reason for my shiver was a far cry from a simple temperature.

It was the livid face of my aunt as she pointed at my broken window.

"Um, I can explain," I rushed out, holding my hands up in hopes of appeasing her.

"Please do."

The coldness in her tone made me shiver once again. I barely held in my tremors as I spoke. "Well, our hyper neighbor and her sister were apparently doing some batting practice in their backyard. Unfortunately, the one who probably has severe ADHD somehow screwed up and hit their baseball straight through my window."

"So, where's the ball?"

Her tone seemed slightly less edgy than before. Unfortunately, I knew that it was about to get ten times as livid as it was now. "Well… about that…"

"I'm waiting," she said, tapping her foot rather impatiently.

"I kinda… threw it into the window of their dad's man cave."

"You _what_?"

At the sheer amount of venom dripping from her last word, I backed up on my bed until I hit the wall. A little part of me in the back of my mind whispered that it wasn't a good idea to back into a wall, and that I should have got up, grabbed my Nerve Gear, and ran for the hills when I had the chance.

I decided that repeating myself would only get me further in the dog house. And thus, I reserved my right to remain silent. Japan had that, right? I heard of it from an American crime show.

"As you don't seem to understand the gravity of harming Mr. Konno's man cave, I want you to be the one to apologize to him. He comes back from his business trip in about four days, so you'd best prepare a massive speech detailing your regrets. Understood?"

_Oh, shit!_

"U-understood," I replied, quite literally shivering in terror.

* * *

The next day, I found myself wanting to log in with a passion that I hadn't felt in months. Anything to get away from my quite irritated aunt and my smug cousin. I couldn't even meet them downstairs for breakfast; I wouldn't give my cousin the satisfaction of getting to see the usually-calm, cool, collected Kirigaya Kazuto shiver in terror, even if I had to wait for breakfast until after they were both done.

Thus, I logged back in at around eight-thirty in the morning, almost immediately after I was awake enough to move.

Once again, I was met with the cobblestone streets and rather large, medieval Europe-styled buildings of the «Starting City». I looked around for any people I might know (that is, people who didn't want to duel me all the time). Unfortunately, or perhaps quite fortunately, I found none.

I took out a «Teleport Crystal» and used it to warp to the main settlement of the fifty-first floor. As the tournament was scheduled to begin that day, I knew that very few people would actually be dungeon-mapping right about then. It was the perfect time to get some grinding in, and also to level my new secret build.

_I should probably try to record another OSS or two for it as well. After all, I plan to use it in the final few rounds of the tournament._

* * *

The «Truth Reflector Cave», I decided, was a rather unnerving dungeon. Not because of the mobs or mini-bosses that lurked there, mind you. This went way beyond that.

In the bright red, almost pink crystals that covered up about ninety percent of the walls and ceiling, you could see your reflection. _Your_ reflection. Not your avatar's. _Yours_. In other words, you saw exactly what you would see by looking into a mirror in the real world.

When I looked around for any mobs I may have missed in my grinding session, I saw not the reflection of Kirito, the «Immortal Swordsman» who had never once died since the start of the official game. Instead, I saw the reflection of Kirigaya Kazuto, the unsociable, lazy bum, wearing «Sword Art Online's» strongest player's equipment, carrying the strongest player's two swords in his hands.

"«Dual Blades»… what a tiresome build," I said to my reflections, watching as their mouths moved in time with my own. "Sure, the skills have crazy-high damage and hit count, and its attack speed bonus makes it a hell of a lot easier to record a high-speed OSS, but…"

I looked away from the mirror-like walls of the cave, opening my menu to return my second sword to its spot in my inventory. When the generic gray sword disappeared and left my mighty «Elucidator's» company, I sighed once again.

"Man, I'll probably never find a sword that matches my main one's power. Or at least, it'll be twenty floors before I do."

As I said this, I held my demonic boss drop out in front of me, inspecting it for what seemed like the hundredth time since I actually raised my «Strength» stat high enough to equip it. Without any thought, I swung it around, watching the trail of black that seemed to always follow it every time. Towards the tip of the blade, however, a small trail of white light would always follow behind the white cross engraved on both sides.

After getting bored of swinging it around, both in terms of attention and physical ability (that sword is frigging heavy!), I slashed the air once more, going from left to right before sheathing it in the scabbard on my back. "And, it looks like it isn't just a regular «Extra Skill», either. If it was, there would probably be a lot of other players with it showing up."

As I began my trek back towards the entrance of the unnerving cave, I heard the sound of footsteps coming from around the corner. I froze in place, knowing that there was no way to hide in a place that constantly shows hundreds of your own reflections all around you.

_Wait… will they be able to see my real reflection?_

Suddenly, I found myself seriously regretting coming to this particular dungeon. This regret multiplied by ten when I heard a familiar voice calling out my in-game name.

"Kirito!"

_Shit!_

I saw her reflection on the crystal walls before I actually saw her round the corner. I did a double take for a moment, before looking back at one of my own reflections.

_Mine looks like the real me… but hers still looks like her avatar's… what's going on here?_

It took me a moment to register her calling my name again. "Over here!" I called her over. I reasoned that if I couldn't see her real-world reflection, then she couldn't see mine, though I wasn't entirely sure of myself.

A few moments later, Yuuki herself was leaning over before me, panting as if she sprinted all the way here. More out of annoyance at the sound than out of actually caring, I opened up my inventory and quickly materialized a flask of water for her.

"You look like you just sprinted a mile," I pointed out as I held the flask out to her whilst looking away. The sound of her panting, mixed with her expression and body position, made for an annoyingly erotic scene (Don't look at me like that! I'm a teenage boy, of course my mind falls in the gutter when shit like this happens!). "Here, have some water."

I soon felt the small weight of the flask leave my hands, and heard the sound of feverish drinking, followed by a sigh of contentment. The sound of shattering glass ensued, and I knew that the flask had been emptied, and, having served its purpose, had disappeared from this world.

I finally turned back to face Yuuki, hoping that she no longer looked the way she did before. My prayers were answered. "So, you mind telling me what made you come here in such a hurry?"

"You're a life-saver!" she exclaimed, her over-reactive voice almost hurting my ears. I wanted to tell her that exhaustion and thirst had no effect on HP, but before I could, she continued. "But anyway, I came to let you know that the first round of the tournament starts in about twenty minutes."

I stayed silent for a few seconds. What was the point of that? And even more interesting, why did she even care? "Yeah? And?"

"_And_, I wanted to make sure you didn't no-show and cheat me out of my rematch!"

It was then that I remembered the length of time that the girl before me had supposedly been playing this game for. She certainly hadn't been around at the time of the first tournament, but still…

_This girl… is a total newb._

"Not to be mean, but your scrub level is really showing right now," I couldn't contain my smirk as I told her this. That first part was a total lie – I totally meant to be a jackass there.

"How?" Judging by her tone, she definitely knew my true intentions, though it's not like I tried that hard to conceal them.

This only made it more enjoyable, though. Especially after her reaction to my next remark. "The system will teleport all of the tournament's participants straight to the waiting area when there are five minutes left until a new round."

"I-I see…" was all she could utter in reply, her face beet-red from embarrassment as she rubbed her neck nervously.

"So, in the end, your journey to see me was pointless," I concluded, the smirk never leaving my face. It was too fun to tease the girl who had made my life a living hell in the real.

"No it wasn't!" she defended rather unexpectedly. I looked at her with inquisitive eyes, but I didn't get all that far before she continued in a hushed tone. "You still have to tell me about the OSS Record system…"

Oh, right. I totally forgot I had told her I would teach her about that, didn't I? Well, we still had about fifteen to twenty minutes before the tournament started… enough time to teach her the basics.

* * *

When the blue light that snuck up on the both of us subsided, we found ourselves in a roman-styled room. Pillars supported the ceiling in strategic points throughout the room, and the walls had Italian ivy growing on them for aesthetics. I remembered the room well – it was the place where the matchups for the first round were revealed to the participants in the tournament. This was an instance map, one that only the tournament's participants would ever see. Using «Recording Crystals» to make the room public was prohibited, as I remember a participant angrily finding out last time.

On the west wall, a large sheet of parchment resided, showing a bracket setup with names on it. I walked across the volcanic stone flooring, making my way over to the brackets before anyone else realized they were there.

On the far right next to the number one, I found my name. I would be in the very first match, it seemed. A kind of opening bells to the tournament, I guess, what with me being the current champion and all. Yuuki's name was clear at the opposite end, so she would be in the last match of round one. We were probably the two strongest competitors, but I couldn't completely count out Klein, who I saw near the middle, on Yuuki's side. He would get far, just like last time. But I figured that my hyper-active neighbor would mow him down for sure if it came to that.

All in all, I counted a grand total of sixty-four names on the bracket, half of which I recognized from last time. That meant there would be about six rounds. They would probably have two rounds per day, making this a three-day event. Well, it was summer vacation, anyway, so it didn't matter all that much.

For those wondering why there were only sixty-four slots in the tournament for a public VRMMO, the reasoning was simple. The requirements for qualification themselves were already highly strict. Minimum level of sixty (I was the highest-leveled at 76), at least four maxed skill slots, and a few other tough requirements cut out about ninety-eight percent of the population of the game, which totaled about 50,000 at this point in SAO's service. Of the remaining two, or a thousand players, only a select few were interested in the tournament that proved the strongest player.

All these limiters actually proved quite fortunate; after all, this tournament would last bloody forever if everyone who wanted to participate was allowed to. And there'd be so many low-leveled big-shots thinking they were better than the system, it would pollute the tournament atmosphere and make it unbearable for the people who actually had a shot at winning.

I offhandedly wondered how many of the participants whose names I didn't recognize had taken the "catch-up quests" that I had noticed appearing recently. They were rare, randomly-generated quests from the game's new quest maker system that were only allowed to be taken by people within certain level ranges. They were tough, almost impossible to solo, but they were about three times as lucrative as normal quests once completed. You were almost guaranteed at least three level-ups from the mobs and completion EXP, nice equipment rewards for your level range, and copious amounts of the in-game currency, Col.

Admittedly, I had found a few in my level range (the high-level ones were exceedingly rare, so I only found less than five in total) and tackled them with the clearer friends that I could convince to come with. Every single time, I leveled up at least twice, with one of them making me level four times. The equipment rewards weren't bad, but I typically had better rare drops, so I gave them to my friends after choosing what they told me to.

I called the quests "catch-up quests" because for those who just started playing, if they managed to consistently find and complete these particular quests for their level range, they could close the gap between themselves and the clearers in less than a month of playing, based on my estimate. Yuuki had probably used more than a few of these to get to her current level and skill proficiency – the ones with mini-bosses were excellent ways to level up your skills as well as your character.

I heard the sound of footsteps walking up to the spot beside me, and I turned to find my violet-haired acquaintance. She looked at the sheet of brownish parchment herself for a good ten seconds before turning to me and speaking.

"Well, that sucks…" she didn't hold back her words even a little. "I won't get to fight you until the end."

I smirked, looking at her disappointed face with a smug one. "But that means that we get to fight each other in the final round, right? Doesn't that have a nice ring to it? I'm glad I get to fight the second strongest in the final battle."

"Don't call me second!" she snapped at my unintended antagonism, getting right up in my face about it. "That loss yesterday was a fluke, and I'll prove it to you in the final!"

"Bring it," I egged her on as I backed out of her way. "Just try not to lose before you get to me."

_I think I'll start using «Dual Blades» in the quarter-finals, just to give her a heads-up that she hasn't faced me at my strongest yet._

I walked away from the bracket right before everybody else started going up to look at it. In about five minutes, after the opening ceremony played for the public, I would be teleported to the arena along with my opponent. And then the first round would begin, and I would end up being the real opening show – after all, I knew they fixed the brackets just to have the current champion fight in the first round's first match.

_Here we go again._

* * *

When the blue light once again started to claim my body, I merely waved to Yuuki, who had been chattering for the past three minutes. I really didn't get her; I had made every attempt to mess with her, tease her, insult her, and other things that generally showed you didn't like a person. So the fact that she continued to stick around me left me wondering if she was oblivious, or just didn't care.

Anyway, when the light subsided, I found myself in the middle of a roman-styled coliseum with a seating section large enough to hold about ten-thousand players. And trust me, they were filled to capacity. The rest of the fifty-thousand were probably watching the free live stream, since in-person seating had prices that scared even myself.

I surveyed the coliseum's ground. The dried, flat, tan earth probably stretched out about a hundred meters in diameter, enough for a small-scale warzone. Fortunately, there were only two people there: myself, and a rather heavily-armored player I didn't recognize, standing about three meters away. He looked like a tin man compared to myself, considering my only metal armor was a small, light metal breast plate and metal accents on my black dragon leather boots.

Fortunately for my one-handed swordsman build, his armor wouldn't make it any harder to hit him. Sure, it added defense points, but if I made contact with, let's say his chest, my blade would move through his silver plate armor as if it were butter. Such is the way that the system handled strikes.

His weapon was a one-handed axe, held loosely in his right hand. They had about the same power as one-handed swords, but their limit was the lack of options for attacking, since they could only really slash, and were even more close-ranged than one-handed swords. Most of their skills would inflict high-level delays, should they land, which made them a highly-favorable PvP weapon if you used them properly.

This brown-haired, fair-skinned warrior was obviously a person who knew at least a little about PvP combat. His silver armor looked big and bulky, but I noticed that it gave a little extra room in just the right places in all joint areas. It also had a silver color, so it wouldn't be as heavy as iron armor. His one-handed axe, gripped laxly in his right hand, looked highly-upgraded, giving off a luster that showed lots of use, but also lots of maintenance. Judging from its abnormally large, lustrous black blade at the handle's end, he had put a lot of upgrades into sharpness and heaviness, the latter of which would gradually increase the blade's size over dozens of successful upgrades. Heaviness upgrades made attacks slower, but also increased the chances for debuffs, such as motion delays, to land on successful hits.

This person must have put a lot of work into his weapon. My own blade, still sheathed on the scabbard on my lower back, had just been upgraded to plus twenty out of fifty the other day. However, even at its base levels, it had the strength of a plus twenty-five normal weapon for someone of my level, making its real worth closer to plus forty-five. It was my «Elucidator», the LA drop from the floor fifty boss, and one of the only floor boss drops so far that turned out to be a weapon. With the current floor being fifty-one, it was probably the best sword in the game for the time being. And I had the only copy.

I had zoned out by analyzing my opponent's equipment for a good couple minutes, hoping that by the time I was done, the announcer (one of SAO's development staff set an AI up to do it, apparently) would be done with its speech. Finally, right as I finished with looking at my own weapon, I heard a system sound.

When I looked forward, a large timer loomed between me and my opponent, obstructing our view of each other. It counted down from sixty, giving both of us ample time to draw our weapons and get into form without our opponent seeing us.

However, just in case he could see through the holes in the timer display, I decided to wait until the last second before drawing my blade. The first and only person who ever came close to beating me in a duel had shown me exactly how important it was to not give away your stance right away. At the time, he had been far ahead of me down the PvP path, and the only reason I didn't lose was because we let the timer drain while our health was within five percent of each other's, resulting in a draw.

The reason I gave away my stance to Yuuki in our duel was because I hadn't been taking the fight seriously at first. But now, with the advent of a new tournament to decide the strongest player once again, my serious switch was long flipped. I wouldn't give anyone a centimeter. I would give it everything I had, right up until the very end. Because for me, that's what it meant to be a swordsman in «Aincrad».

Twenty seconds left on the timer. Nineteen, eighteen, seventeen, and sixteen. Right at the fifteen second mark, I grabbed my «Elucidator» by its upper handle, drawing it from its scabbard. Once its tip left the sheath, I rested it over my shoulder in a relaxed stance, one that gave away nothing of how I would start the match.

Ten seconds left. Nine, eight, seven, six. I could tell through the timer that he had raised his weapon from its loose position at its side. I could also see the faint red glow of a sword skill beginning to charge. But it didn't matter. The way I decided to start would make his skill inconsequential, even if it were a dashing skill to close the distance between us near-instantaneously.

Five seconds. Four, three, two. Finally, I put my sword into position to activate a certain skill, holding it tightly behind my shoulder and neck. I turned so that my waist and shoulder were coiled as tightly as my arm, and my blade took on a white glow that quickly gained brightness.

One… zero.

At once, the timer disappeared with a loud buzz, leaving it its wake the player whose skill had just finished charging. But my own skill finished charging before he released his, and I released it a split second before he acted.

Unlike what he probably intended to start the duel with, my skill kept me firmly planted in the same spot. First my waist uncoiled, then my shoulder, and then my arm extended after it in a full-power swing of my white-shimmering blade. The glow itself separated from my blade right as the slash reached its end, shooting towards my opponent in a curved shockwave.

My opponent took the wave of light dead on, and instantly froze in place, his skill immediately cancelling out. The skill I started the duel with, a single-hit, ranged AOE attack that did very little damage known as «Serration Wave», had stunned him for a good three seconds to come, as well as left him in a forty-second «Bind» status, which would prevent him from walking, running, jumping or using dash-type sword skills.

I didn't intent on waiting for the effects to finish. I used the momentum of the slash to pivot on one foot, spinning around and moving my arm into just the stance needed to launch a second skill.

With the sound of a jet engine firing, I let loose my second sword skill. I shot at my foe with blurring speed, thrusting my golden blade outwards and catching him in the stomach. His armor's added defense didn't stop his HP draining by a whopping fifteen percent due to the sheer power of my blade. But I only used this skill, an ultra-fast charge skill called «Vorpal Strike» in order to close the distance, not end the duel.

While the stun effect lasted and his weapon still had itself positioned out in front of him, I drew my sword out of his body and positioned it at my left waist. The glow of this fast-acting skill was almost instantaneously finished charging, and I released it no more than a half second after I started.

The two-hit skill known as «Snake Bite» struck in two mirroring horizontal strikes so fast that it looked like two swords hitting his axe simultaneously from different sides, and only a single, earth-shattering sound effect released from the double hit. It caught the blade dead in the middle of its wooden pole, the one-handed axe's weak spot, snapping it in two and forcing the bladed half of the axe high into the air. Both halves shattered into polygons soon after.

This left my opponent with two options. They could either equip a second weapon and continue within ten seconds, or they would automatically lose because they didn't have a weapon to fight with. This was my goal the moment I saw his weapon. I didn't like dealing with one-handed axes, so I would either force him to use something different, or force him to give up. Either way, this match was mine the moment it began. I didn't even need to use a single OSS to beat someone of his caliber.

"I… I give up…" came an early admittance of defeat from my brown-haired opponent. Out of everyone here, it probably only reached my ears, but the system heard it loud and clear.

A big system message appeared over our heads just as I looked up.

**Euro has given up after a weapon break-type disarm! The winner is Kirito!** It said in bolded purple font. No more than two seconds later, the crowd roared with cheering at the overwhelming power of the winner.

Overall, that match took a measly three and a half seconds. That's how quickly the fighting ended, from my stun skill's hit milliseconds after the start, to the breaking of his outstretched weapon while he still barely remained stunned.

I sheathed my sword, holding out my hand for the loser known as Euro to shake. He took it with a rather bewildered expression, and we shook.

"That was a good wake-up," I told him, letting his hand go and returning mine to my side. "Thanks."

He responded with something polite, but I could feel the bitterness in him. He lost in the first round, in only a few seconds. It made sense that he would feel upset about it. Not only that, but everyone cheered at his loss. I almost felt bad for the guy, since he got stuck with the game's strongest right away.

The blue light engulfed us, and I found myself alone in a room several tens of meters above the coliseum, suspended in the air. The walls were of large, drab, gray brick, but the floor was of clear glass, so I could watch the battles from above. This was the room where the winners of the first five rounds were teleported. As such, this rendition of it was fit to house a little over thirty sitting people comfortably. As the rounds passed, the room would progressively get smaller, to emphasize that half as many people would ever be there each time. The people in the coliseum wouldn't be able to even see this closed-off space, and you couldn't use «Recording Crystals» in it, either, so only a few people knew of its existence.

"Well… time to nap."

With that, I walked to a corner and sat with my head in my hands, closing my eyes and preparing to nod off for an hour. I didn't even entertain the possibility of seeing what the others had to offer. Not out of cockiness, but out of laziness.

_Besides… it's not like any of them could beat me, anyway… and I'm too tired to care if any of them have good skills._

It didn't take long before I fell asleep.

* * *

**A few more mechanics were explained in this chapter, some off-screen and some on. I specifically had Kirito avoid using OSS in the first round, because he views them as his hand, which he should never reveal right at the start.**

**Oh, and for those wondering about why Kirito saw his IRL reflection in that cave, keep in mind that the Nerve Gear does have the capability to scan to get a good picture of the face, and the calibration makes it possible to get the correct body shape and size, so that cave was there to prove that point. After all, the «Hand Mirror» item doesn't exist in this AU, so they never reverted to their IRL appearances. Another thing is that you only see your own IRL reflection in that cave; everyone else's will look like their in-game avatar's. **

**Interaction between Kirito and Yuuki is going well for how things were set up, I think. I'm not the type to have characters throw themselves at each other right away; they need proper relationship buildup before they can even think about having feelings for each other, in my mind.**

**This chapter actually turned out to be longer than the first one, though not by much. Don't expect this to be a pattern, because I'm really bad at making chapters longer than four-thousand words consistently.**

**So, any thoughts are welcome to be left as reviews. Unless you're just criticizing me for taking so long, in which case I'll ignore you. But any critique available on my writing style would be appreciated.**

**Well, I'll probably update (UN)Forgivable next. It'll be a bit, though, since I'm not finished with it yet. And I promised a friend that I'd let him see it pre-release.**

**I guess I'll see you next time!**


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